Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
The US Federal Aviation Administration is concerned that the international aviation community will not be ready in time for the Year 2000 (Y2K) date change, while it has speeded up efforts to put its own house in order to combat the millennium software bug.
The FAA has agreed to leave the International Civil Aviation Organisation to take on the task of verifying that a country's aviation authority is compliant. Mary Powers-King, FAA deputy Y2K programme manager, admits that without verification of a country's compliance with Y2K, the FAA could be forced to ban flights to and from that country. The agency admits that its concern is that nobody really knows the scope of the problem internationally.
The FAA has itself been strongly criticised for being late getting to grips with the issue, and has now established a dedicated Y2K programme office and set a deadline of 30 June, 1999, for all of its systems to be compliant, four months ahead of the original plan. Software renovation for all systems is due for completion by 30 September to allow time for testing.
Y2K programme manager Ray Long says that the FAA - which in early February was seven months behind - is now "on track" for the September deadline. All 430 mission critical systems have been assessed, and assessment of 354 non-mission critical systems is to be completed by 15 April.
Of 209 mission critical systems in the FAA Air Traffic Services' inventory, 125 have been certified as Y2K compliant and renovation of the rest is under way, says Long. This includes the host computers at air traffic control centres, despite plans to replace them by 2000. "The plan is to renovate and certify the existing host in case the schedule slips on host replacement," Long says.
An outstanding issue is the degree to which the FAA will be involved in ensuring that avionics are Y2K compliant, which is now left to manufacturers (Flight International, 8-14 April). Powers-King says a survey of industry indicates that the Y2K date-logic problem does not affect avionics greatly, and "-we have no plans to require recertification of systems".
Ronald Morgan, FAA acting associate administrator for air traffic services, is optimistic: "Technology advances have simplified Y2K repair techniques, making the problem more of a management challenge than a technical one."
Source: Flight International
